


Paranoia

by Welfycat



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mundane_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-02
Updated: 2010-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-13 11:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John's team has lunch off-world, much to Rodney's dismay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paranoia

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Mundane Bingo. Prompt: picking through avocados/fruit on the ground to find lunch

They’d been walking through P46-782, or as Sheppard had taken to calling it ‘the planet of freaky plants’, for several hours before Rodney sighed and dropped his scanner to the ground in disgust. He flopped down next to it and rested on the thick, spongy grass that had provided a fairly bouncy walking surface and wasn’t too uncomfortable to sit down on either. It kind of reminded Rodney a little bit of walking along couch cushions on the living room floor as a kid; hopping from pillow to pillow to avoid the ‘lava’.

“What’s the problem, McKay?” Sheppard asked, his hand resting on the gun that hung from around his neck.

Sheppard wasn’t even sweating, despite the heat and the intense and oddly green light that surrounded them on the planet, obscuring their vision of anything further than twenty yards away. Rodney mopped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt as he glared at Sheppard. “It’s pointless, we’re going around in circles. Every time it seems like we’re getting closer to the energy signature, it changes location.”

Ronon stretched as he looked around them. “So, no technology and no Wraith. Why are we even here?”

“Because the scanner says that there is something here,” Rodney snapped, waving his hand towards the piece of technology that had betrayed him. His stomach gurgled loudly and he sighed again and thought longingly of the mess hall. They were supposed to be having meatloaf today and there was no way they would get back in time to get anything good. He glanced at his watch; at this rate they’d be lucky to get back in time for dinner.

“Alright, let’s rest for twenty minutes and then figure out what we’re going to do.” Sheppard shrugged off his pack and dropped it next to Rodney, both of them watching as it bounced on the cushioned ground.

Rodney dug through his own pack for a MRE and his laptop, determined to figure out what was causing the rogue energy reading. He only looked up in time to see Sheppard about to take a bite out of a crescent shaped purple fruit that had been laying on the ground nearby. “Are you nuts? Those things could be poisonous!” he shouted, waving his free hand about frantically.

“They’re quite harmless, Rodney,” Teyla said serenely. She was walking along the edge of a copse of trees, scanning the fruit on the ground. “Athosians have traded for them for many years. In the colder months we make a hot drink from the juice and some spices.”

Ronon had also picked up a piece of the fruit and was breaking it into sections before stuffing them in his mouth. Some of the juice dripped from his lips, staining his mouth and chin purple.

Sheppard finished his piece quickly, the fruit were only about the size of a small peach and began to casually pick through the fruit that was on the ground near him. He tossed a piece to Rodney, who fumbled but managed to catch it against his chest.

“Do you mind?” Rodney asked, setting the offending fruit down next to him and digging back into his turkey dinner.

“They’re good. You’d like them,” Sheppard said, grabbing another piece for himself and digging in.

Teyla had joined them on the ground with several pieces of fruit and was neatly cleaning one against her shirt before using one of her small knives to neatly split open the skin.

Ronon continued to forage, eating each piece standing up before continuing on to find more.

“They could have citrus. Do you have any idea how quickly I would die, even with the epi pen? We’re at least three hours from the ‘gate!” Rodney pushed the fruit further away from him and went back to focusing on his laptop.

“It doesn’t taste like citrus at all; it’s not even yellow or green,” Sheppard said around a mouth-full of the fruit, his lips slowly turning purple as well.

Rodney shook his head and glared. “That doesn’t mean anything. Are you trying to kill me?”

Sheppard raised his eyebrows in a way that could mean just about anything before getting to his feet and walking the short distance to the stream that ran along the edge of the trees and used the water to wash his hands and face.

When Ronon and Teyla joined him in the water, Rodney couldn’t stop himself from shouting across the distance, despite Sheppard repeatedly warning him about giving away their location to potential enemies when they were off-world. “Does the phrase ‘water and food born parasites’ mean nothing to you people?” The scary thing, he thought, was it probably didn’t mean much to any of them, even Sheppard.

**Author's Note:**

> This and other fics can be found on my DreamWidth Journal: [Paranoia](http://welfycat.dreamwidth.org/6392.html)


End file.
